Sunday, August 15, 2010

Made it to Germany!

Hello!!!

I made it to Germany!!  Sarah and I left Houston on Friday morning and arrived in Frankfurt on Saturday morning.  The plane ride was pretty painless.  The German lady on the aisle next to use had the cutest baby I've ever seen in my life, and we was really good, which is surprising for a 9 hour flight!  After getting out Eurail passes validated we attempted to figure out the German train system.  It's pretty easy, except we were told we did not need a seat reservation for our train to Munich.  This made for a rather stressful situation the first hour of the journey because we kept having to switch seats and move my MANY bages.  But we (and the bags) made it to Munich!!!  Our hotel, Le Meridien, is right across the street from the main train station, and it is awesome!   It's newly redone, and HUGE for a european hotel room!!!  We got an awesome deal the week the Euro dropped in value, so that's good!

After a little nap and a much needed shower Sarah and I ventured out into Munich!  We walked around the old down and saw Marienplatz.  The weather was perfect (high 60's/low 70s and sunny) so we found a nice beirgarten (beer garden) outside to have dinner and a beer in.  It was great!  By about 8:00pm we were exhausted and decided to go back to the hotel to sleep.

Today (Sunday) we woke up and went to the train station to meet for our tour of Dachau concentration camp.  Dachau is about 15 minutes by train outside of the city.  Our tour guide was extremely knowledgable and the whole thing was very interesting, and quite sad.  We saw the gate, buildings, gas chambers, and crematorium. It's one of those things you feel like you need to see, even if its kind of upsetting.  Apparently, German school children are required to go to a concentation camp during their school years as part of the ciriculum.  The day started out gloomy, which we though appropriate for a concentration camp, but it turned into a gorgeous day!  Who knew it could be sunny with blue sky and I would not be sweating??  It was about 70 degrees with a fresh breeze (perfect!).  I know this weather will be short lived and I will be whining about being cold before you know it! 

After getting some sandwiches and taking another nap we decided to head back out to see more Munich.  We were planning on getting up by 4:00 so we could see the Glockenspiel (famous clock) do it's thing at 5:00.  But when I woke up at 4:00, my sister said I said "screw that stupid clock" and turned off my alarm.  We eventually got up and made out way to the famous Hofbauhaus (beer hall) for come beers and giant pretzels.  It is such a festive place, with the Oom-pah music and the 1 liter steins of beer.  Though there are very few Germans there, and a lot of tourists.  We made friends with some people for Alaska and a dude from Italy at our table.  Good times!  Now we're resting up for another fun-filled day tomorrow!

So far, Germany has NOT disappointed.  Everyone has been very friendly and very forgiving about me not knowing the language!  It's looking like a good 3.5 months!!  I'm attaching a few pics of our first day, but more will follow shortly!

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